Weakening of limits on power plants’ toxic water pollution challenged in federal court

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.–Conservation groups in the Carolinas, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, filed suit to stop the Trump administration from weakening limits on toxic water pollution from coal-fired power plants. The lawsuit, filed by SELC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on behalf of Appalachian Voices and the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, seeks to uphold requirements put in place in 2024 that would stop many of the largest and most harmful wastewater discharges from coal-fired power plants.

“Arsenic and mercury from coal-fired power plants can be stopped by readily available water pollution controls, but this administration wants these dirty, outdated plants to keep dumping their toxic pollution into our rivers and lakes for many years to come,” said Nick Torrey, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Our communities can’t afford more cancer-causing pollution in our waterways.”

Coal-fired power plants generate a huge amount of all industrial water pollution in the United States, and they are prevalent in the Southeast.  By rewriting strict pollution requirements at industry’s request, EPA allows polluters to dump arsenic, mercury, and many other toxic pollutants into drinking water supplies and other waterways—even though technologies to control this pollution are available and required under the Clean Water Act.

“The Clean Water Act requires eliminating harmful water pollution from dirty old plants like Duke Energy’s Belews Creek, where Duke Energy says it wants to burn coal until 2040,” said Ridge Graham, North Carolina program manager at Appalachian Voices. “Communities along the Dan River have already had to deal with coal ash pollution, air pollution, and decades of ongoing dumping of toxic water pollution from the power plant. Enough is enough.”

The lawsuit filed in the Fourth Circuit will be part of a lottery process under the Clean Water Act to determine where all challenges to the Trump administration’s weakening of the rule will ultimately be heard. Challenges to the Biden administration’s 2024 rule were ultimately consolidated in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals; that litigation is currently paused while the Trump administration has been revisiting the requirements and proposing changes.

“Santee Cooper has indicated it wants to run its aging Cross coal plant into the 2040s, so it should be required to use available technology to eliminate its harmful water pollution, not get a free pass for many years into the future,” said Taylor Allred, State Energy & Climate Program Director at the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. “EPA is retreating from common-sense protections at the industry’s request and putting Lowcountry communities at risk for no good reason. It’s time to end this toxic water pollution for good.”